ML season starts Oct 30 and I have never been more excited!! Two full weeks of either sex hunting!!

P.S. Pray the Lord gives my wife patience, understanding and endurance this season! We have two kiddies, 4 and 1, and I know she'll get to her wit's end on occasion.

well I've got good news and bad news.... :( I went out last Thursday. A while after 7pm I saw a deer come out of the treeline along the river into the meadow I was sitting along the edge of. Needless to say after not having got one yet I was pretty excited. I pulled my gun up and took a look through the scope and couldn't see antlers so I repositioned myself to shoot the doe. Keep in mind this was the longest shot I've ever taken, over the last few years all of the deer I've shot have been within 60 yards. I was patient and waited until I had a clear shot and her side was to me. I shot and down she went. At this point I was quite happy with myself and gathered my gear to walk over to my kill. UNFORTUNATELY as I came closer I realized it was a gut shot and I felt terrible! My very first kill ever was a gut shot and I have tried consistently since then to not make a bad shot... thankfully up until now I had a great shot every time. I shot again and made sure that it was dead.. but Also... I noticed that it was a spike and not a doe :( I haven't ever been so disappointed in myself while hunting and wish that I'd had seen it was a spike. His spikes were under the legal size so he was legal but I still feel absolutely terrible about it. That's probably the last time I'm going to attempt a shot that far, lesson learned I guess. Has anything similar happened to anyone else, because I feel absolutely terrible about it.

I had exact same thing happen on my 2nd deer, it was within legal limits but first you say its your first kill, then you say luckily every shot youve taken before mine wasn't a gut shot but it was a spike. If your worried cause it could of been a big buck one day then seriously dont sweat it because there are a lot of deer out there one is not going to affect the population that much.